Do You Know You Could Have Spondylitis?

Remember when you were seven and your grandfather would give you a treat in exchange for your ‘walking’ on his back? You would anticipate the treat and couldn’t wait to meet him, but he would secretly wait too so he could get his daily dose of massage!

Of course, as a kid you wouldn’t understand why your grandfather would please you for a massage on his back, but here’s the answer! Elders and men are more likely to develop Ankylosing Spondylitis.

Ankylosing Spondylitis is a type of arthritis that affects the spine. It causes stiffness starting from the neck down to the lower back. The spine’s bones (vertebrae) may grow or fuse together, resulting in a rigid spine. [Source]

No wonder your grandpa needed some relief from all that pain. Fast forward fifteen years, the situation you’re in now is not very different from what you saw in your grandfather. Long shifts, wrong postures and prolonged sitting are recognized as reasons for early spondylitis in young men and young women. People whose job requires them to travel extensively, must especially take extreme care.

You may even be suffering from spondylitis at this very moment, but may not be aware of it. To help you identify it, here are some symptoms of spondylitis:

Symptoms:

Pain around the neck region, back and joints

You can feel that the flexibility of your spine has reduced.

The reduced flexibility results in a hunchback posture.

Time seems to make the pain only worse.

If you have mentally said yes to all of the above, we need to have a medical conversation soon. Unfortunately, there is no diet that has proven successful in avoiding spondylitis. A healthy diet, however, reduces the chances of getting spondylitis early. Attending to the pain is very essential and the doctors would be able to suggest and prescribe exercises along with small changes in your lifestyle. They would be able to suggest how exactly the exercise needs to be done and for how long, as the right amount of pressure needs to be given to your spine, failing which the consequences might be damaging.

For those who have mentally said “No, thank god!”, you’re still at risk of developing spondylitis. Adopting these changes in your lifestyle will be helpful in keeping spondylitis at bay:

Disciplined exercise routine for twenty minutes and a healthy diet are a must.

Yoga can be the perfect answer even for those suffering from spondylitis; however, not all asanas are recommended. The yoga guru would be able to prescribe specific asanas exclusively to treat the pain.

A good sleeping posture can also help in avoiding spondylitis.

For any advice on how to handle the pain or avoid spondylitis altogether, feel free to reach out to our specialized doctors. They will be able to walk you through this with ease.